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A few years ago, a new developer called Splash Damage -- comprised mainly of mod makers from the Quake community -- was signed by Activision to create a team-based multiplayer component for what was ultimately a cancelled Return to Castle Wolfenstein expansion pack. In a stroke of genius, Activision released the multiplayer portion -- dubbed Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory -- for free to the public, and it became a huge hit. So it seemed like a no-brainer when a full-blown sequel -- Enemy Territory: Quake Wars -- was announced. The result is a game that's far bigger and deeper than its predecessor, more Battlefield than Quake. There's a learning curve involved, but if you hang in there, you'll be rewarded with one of the deeper multiplayer shooters in recent years.

At least in spirit, ETQW is both a sequel to Wolfenstein: Enemy Territory and a prequel to the Quake series. Like the first Enemy Territory, teams are split up into offense and defense, except instead of playing as Axis or Allies, you're playing as Earth's Global Defense Force (GDF) or the invading alien Strogg (the villains of Quake II and Quake IV). Each of the game's twelve maps portrays a "historical" scenario from the early days of the Earth-Strogg conflict, such as the GDF attempting to destroy a Strogg harvesting refinery or stealing a data disc containing information on the Strogg slipgate technology.

Each of the maps generally has three or four major objectives for the attackers to achieve in sequence, often requiring the services of a particular character class. For instance, on "Canyon," engineers are required to build a bridge, covert ops are needed to hack a shield generator, and then soldiers are needed to place explosives at the site of an improved Stroggification device.

On "Ark," the tables are turned, as the Strogg go on the offensive and need to destroy a jamming generator, construct a mining laser to break into a GDF facility and blow up a bioscanner they're using to examine the Strogg. Many of these objectives are repeated in several maps, although there are several unique scenarios like "Quarry," where the Strogg need to deliver three power modules to a downed ship so they can activate a self-destruct device.

All told, there are five classes in ETQW: soldier, engineer, covert ops, medic and field ops. There's a lot of depth within each class: each gets a choice of several default weapons to play with (the soldier, for example, has both a rocket launcher and assault rifle among his choices), and usually has several special abilities. Engineers can place anti-personnel or anti-vehicle turrets, Medics can revive fallen players and hand out medpacks, and Field Ops players can set up artillery launchers and call in devastating airstrikes. In fact, this barely scratches the surface of the character abilities and is not even counting the Strogg counterparts -- which aren't quite carbon copies of the GDF, but basically fall into five similar roles.

As if the character classes didn't have enough toys to start with, ETQW is also loaded up with numerous vehicles on each side. I won't bother with the actual names, but there are tanks, jeeps, APCs, choppers, one-man buggies and even boats. The Strogg generally have their own versions of these, with two exceptions: the Icarus flightpack, which lets any Strogg get airborne and opens the door to all sorts of interesting offensive and defensive strategies, and the Goliath mech walker, which can send GDF players scrambling for cover when it stomps into town (unless you've got an engineer with an EMP handy). Not completely unlike the Battlefield series, some of the air vehicles can take some time to get the hang of, but can be devastating when handled properly. Thankfully, there are options to change the camera view from first- to third-person as well as unlocking it while driving, making life easier all around.